Originally Posted by
CPL27
Thought I’d chip in for the 320 roster questions. I’m a 320 FO at QR, medium-high seniority on the fleet.
320 roster is ok-ish at the moment, but it heavily depends on what you bid for and, to some extent, your seniority. For me personally, I bid for very specific days off most months, I usually get them (only 1 month this year so far I did not get the days off I requested). On average, FOs get around 8 -10 off days a month. Almost all of these will be in Doha, however, even on 320 fleet, it is possible to have days off down route. It is possible to tie in days off with leave and for me, with leave, since January this year, I have averaged around 15 days off a month.
The bidding and swap systems are both quite good as far as I am aware. You can bid for pretty much anything, easy start/finish, late start/finish, specific flights, destinations, layovers, flights to certain areas of the world (eg. Europe, Africa etc.) and more. Once the roster is published you can advertise and search for swaps if you wish, however, obviously the swaps depend on other flight crew. I won’t go into the swaps, it is what it says on the tin.
how many layovers…? Again, it depends how you bid. BUT, for new joiners you will likely get what we call the “honeymoon period” which is essentially your first 3 months you’ll get the nice layovers in Europe / pretty much whatever you bid for! After this, you will have a hard time getting those layovers again! At the moment though, to be fair, the flights to Europe are mostly used for training, so they are often pre assigned, hence why it is more difficult to get them. For me as well, I don’t fancy jump seating for 4/5 hours with an SO.
Like I said before, I bid for days off, so I don’t get many layovers. If I so, they are to India or Africa. (Some of these are ok, but some are not.) But I have friends who prefer to bid for layovers and they still get maybe 2 or 3 a month to Europe as well.
If you are like me and prefer days off, expect short turnarounds inter-gulf - Saudi, UAE, Iraq etc. with the occasional India and maybe Turkey being the more “exotic turnarounds.”
With everything in, I fly an average of about 60-65 hours a month…I think this is fairly uniform across the fleet.
For Captains, expect very much the same.
Credit where it is due, QR 320 fleet roster is a fairly good one. Lots of variety to choose from and most people I fly with are reasonably happy with their rosters. I have been known to complain in other departments, but roster is generally not one of them.
Hope this helps! Good luck to all taking their assessments and all new joiners etc. Welcome!